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Netsmart's Haines Reappointed to CCHIT Behavioral Health Work Group

Posted on: Thursday, 11 June 2009, 08:05 CDT

Work Group in Final Year of Developing Criteria for Behavioral Health EHR Technology

GREAT RIVER, N.Y., June 11 /PRNewswire/ -- The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT(R)) has re-appointed Netsmart Technologies Senior Clinical Consultant Lisbeth Haines, M.D., to its Behavioral Health Work Group for 2009-2010.

The 11-member volunteer work group is composed of a diverse group of healthcare stakeholders and is tasked with developing certification criteria and test scripts for behavioral health electronic health record (EHR) technology.

"Betsy Haines will continue to bring a high level of clinical expertise to this work group in its critical role in developing standards-based conformance criteria for EHRs," said James L. Conway, chief executive officer, Netsmart Technologies. "This is especially relevant as behavioral health continues to move closer to peer status with physical health in the healthcare matrix."

Dr. Haines was first appointed to the CCHIT Behavioral Health Work Group in 2008, and is an expert on the use of EHRs in behavioral health. A board-certified psychiatrist, Dr. Haines has been associated with Netsmart for five years. She was previously affiliated with University Behavioral HealthCare (UBHC), the behavioral health division of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, where she was involved in direct patient care and clinical supervision as well as being a Clinical Associate Professor.

With the certification of its Avatar 2006 software, Netsmart became the first behavioral healthcare, public health, substance abuse and methadone software and services provider to have a product certified according to the Commission's Ambulatory EHR 2006 criteria. Netsmart committed resources to meet these first baseline criteria as soon as EHR certification became available. In addition, Netsmart will be seeking certification according to the Commission's latest round of Ambulatory criteria to be launched later this year.

About Netsmart Technologies, Inc.

Netsmart Technologies is an established, leading supplier of enterprise-wide software solutions for health and human services providers. More than 18,000 customer organizations, including 350,000 care providers and nearly 40 state systems, use Netsmart products to help improve the quality of life for millions of people each year.

Netsmart's customers include mental health and substance abuse treatment agencies, psychiatric hospitals, private and group mental health practices, public health departments, vital records offices and managed care organizations. Netsmart's products are full-featured information systems that operate on a variety of operating systems, hardware platforms, and mobile devices, and offer unlimited scalability.

Netsmart's Connected Care initiative allows behavioral and public healthcare providers to share clinical data electronically within their internal processes, externally with other providers, and with consumers via a Web-based portal, enabling high quality, consumer-directed care.

For information about Netsmart Technologies' full range of solutions for health and human services organizations, visit www.ntst.com or call 1-800-421-7503, Option 6.

SOURCE Netsmart Technologies, Inc.

Source: PR Newswire

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